


Two Soldiers Walk Into A Bar

by Ultra



Series: Soldiers of Misfortune [2]
Category: Leverage, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Loss, Lost Love, Pain, Past Eliot Spencer/Aimee Martin, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Understanding, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:30:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7743469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody understands a soldier's pain and loss in love like a fellow man of war.</p>
<p>(Originally written for theron09)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Soldiers Walk Into A Bar

It wasn’t that they desperately needed him at this very moment. The job was running smoothly enough, he had done his part for now, and shouldn’t be required again for a while. It was the only time he would risk dropping off grid for an hour or two. Needless to say, even though Eliot did not expect to be followed, he was still on his guard and noticed immediately when footsteps approached his stool. Honestly, he had a strange feeling he knew the guy was there from the second the door opened. Still, he never flinched, the reflection in the bar room mirror confirming that no threat was imminent.

“Cap’n,” he nodded as Steve Rogers dropped onto the next stool over.

“Spencer,” he replied in kind, before ordering himself a beer and another for his friend.

There was a companionable silence that followed. It had long since been established that there was a connection between these two, not because they were best buds or knew each other massively well, but because an understanding existed here.

They had both been soldiers, fighting for the greater good, and suffering for the cause. Even now it was obvious what background they both came from, even if Eliot didn’t wear the stars and stripes anymore, and Steve could easily hide in plain sight when he left his uniform and mask at home.

Eliot was waiting to be asked what he was doing here, in spite of the fact he was pretty sure the question would never actually be spoken. It was merely implied, and that was enough. After all, he could ask why Rogers had felt the need to follow him or seek him out, whichever turned out to be true, but it didn’t really matter.

It always did seem to be that where one was the other appeared on any occasion when their two teams came together. Neither questioned why. It wasn’t what was on either of their minds right now, not at all.

“You can watch people fall, row on row,” said Eliot eventually, eyes focused on nothing at all though seemingly pointed at the beer bottle grasped in his hand. “It cuts deep but it comes with the territory. They stood in those lines knowing what was coming to ‘em, and you make your peace. It’s weird how it’s the other losses that hit you harder, ones that should be easy but they’re not,” he shook his head. “Can’t miss what you never had, that’s what they say.”

“Whoever says that know nothing at all,” sighed Steve, taking a long drink from his beer, mirroring Eliot who was doing the same.

His ally felt like a bit of a fool when he thought more about Steve’s words next to his own. Agent Peggy Carter had been one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s elite. She was as smart and courageous as she was beautiful, Eliot knew from tales told to him and research they had been privy to in more recent times. Steve Rogers lost his love when he was forced to crash land, the same incident that had encased him in ice for more years than Eliot had been alive. Couldn’t miss what you never had? Not true. He suspected some of the haunted look often in Rogers’ eyes had nothing at all to do with years passed, friends fallen, battles fought. Much of it was Peggy, the love he lost before he ever really had it.

“Least you coulda been worthy of her. What you did saved so many and that... that meant you deserved whatever she felt for you.”

The hitter’s words were just this side of bitter and Steve couldn’t help but wonder at them. When he came here, a product of his own detective work since this was the first bar in a hundred miles of Stark Tower that was remotely ‘country’ in style, he had expected Eliot to just be out to blow off steam somehow or perhaps drown his sorrows over something deep and troubling like the death of a loved one. All he had said in the last few minutes suggested a different kind of loss. Not death perhaps, but it involved someone he loved, a woman he felt he could never earn the right to love?

“She couldn’t understand the life you chose,” said Steve then, a statement not a question because he was beginning to understand exactly what had led to Eliot’s sadness.

At least he had known Peggy’s feelings for him were true and constant. Captain America was a force for good, whereas men like Spencer had walked a line that often through them into those darker grey spots. Not everyone could understand the trouble that came with identifying where the next shot lay, what side of the divide the next choice would leave you on.

Through the evident pain, the hitter smiled an odd smile.

“She got married again,” he said, no louder than a whisper at first. “She, er... this’d be the second go around for her. First one didn’t work out, and somehow I still think she’s blaming me for that... at least she was. This guy, I used to know him. He’s actually gonna make her happy,” he almost laughed at himself then. “Stupid that this one hurts more than the last one,” he declared, downing the last of his beer and immediately asking for another round.

Steve looked down at the drink he had hardly made a start on but didn’t make any comment on it.

“If you love her you should want her happiness,” he considered, perhaps talking more to himself than to Eliot in truth. “I’m glad Peggy was happy after everything, but...”

He didn’t need to say it, they both knew exactly what was meant by the pause that stretched out into miles of words unspoken, thoughts unbidden.

Their job in this world, their reason for being, it wasn’t to find their own happiness but ensure that of others. It had always been that way and somehow they both knew it always would be.

Other men, those who would never carry a gun into battle or pledge their allegiance to a specific force, they got the wife, the kids, the roses around the door, thanks to soldiers like them. It was just the way it had to be.

“To the greater good,” Eliot offered a toast with his latest bottle of brew.

“The greater good,” Steve agreed, glass clicking on glass as the pair shared a wry smile.

They drank in silence after that, just thinking of their own sacrifices, and what they had done for the world. In the end, it was all worth it, and at least they weren’t completely alone.


End file.
